Margaret Mitchell wrote just one book in her lifetime, but for readers—and publishers—apparently that wasn’t enough. For a second time, the immortal characters of Gone With the Wind have stepped onto the literary stage, in what purports to be “the other side of the greatest love story ever told.”

As one who grew up with Gone With the Wind, then read and abhorred the first “authorized sequel” (that dreadful foolishness called Scarlett by Alexandria Ripley), I was prepared to be disappointed again.

Imagine my astonishment—shock—delight—to come upon Rhett Butler’s People. In this captivating epic, which has all the sweep and grandeur of the original and perhaps a more profound understanding of the Civil War and its people, the charming, cynical opportunist of Mitchell’s book is revealed as a deeply wounded and self-defensive man who is capable of great love, but has been thwarted once too often to trust it.

Mitchell hinted at this complexity in GWTW, and McCaig tells the story in full. It starts with Rhett’s father, the intractable Langston, whose cruelty toughens Rhett’s hide, seals his defiant nature, and makes him deeply compassionate, albeit in a very unsentimental way.     

Other characters include Rhett’s weak mother, his rebellious sister Rosemary, his tragic slave friend Tunis and assorted boyhood chums who go on to be pivotal figures in the war between the states. Belle Watling is a central character, as is her son, Tazewell, who may or may not be Rhett’s illegitimate child.

And then there is Katie Scarlett O’Hara. She first appears on page 89, and readers who know the original novel will marvel at how deftly McCaig recreates scenes from GWTW from a slightly different yet telling perspective.

McCaig also wrote Jacob's Ladder, a book the Virginia Quarterly called “the best Civil War novel ever written.” Rhett Butler’s People may not rise to that level, but it is rapturously well written, deeply satisfying, and a worthy companion to Gone With the Wind.

By Marjorie Preston

Marjorie is Managing Editor of Casino Connection Atlantic City.

Please login to post your comments.